Displacement
by Mewtata
Summary: Once upon a time there was a kingdom. In this kingdom there were eight destined heroes who had been dislodged from their story by a villain, and plopped down in another. They all know there's something wrong, but not what. If they don't find each other, they'll stay in this world forever.
1. Chapter 1

The church was a small one, but in the quiet of the night, the silence still echoed. The air was thick with incense from the now-finished services, the evening light trickling through the windows in its last streams. There were no stained-glass panels in a church as poor as this one, but the light was beautiful none the less. The altar was a simple wooden thing.

By the altar, the priest knelt.

He was dressed in black robes as befitting one his stature, but they were worn and occasionally patched as subtly as possible. He was the one who lit the candles here, and scrubbed the pews, and burned the incense.

Now he was murmuring his night prayers, and as the last evening light trickled through alcoves of the windows, he finished and stood up.

Quietly, the priest lit his lantern from one of the candles on the altar. A simple brass thing, for personal use rather than holy, and once that was done he extinguished the candles.

The dark eves of the church seemed to whisper to him as he walked through them, and he couldn't help but feel a creeping dread. He knew what was coming, but that didn't make it any easier to bear.

Pain stabbed into his mind like a hot knife, and the priest doubled over with it, clutching his head. He was suddenly filled with a terror, and there was the sound of wings. The priest prayed for God to give him strength, and clutched at the cross at his neck. He saw a bright light, and suddenly it was over.

The priest stayed doubled over for a few more moments. His chest heaved, sweat ran down his brow. He hated that vision.

He never understood it yet, and simply tried to bear it as it came. As far as he could tell, it was likely either a foreboding vision, or the devil himself trying to break his mind. He did not know which, but either prospect filled him with fear.

With great exertion he hauled himself to his feet and crossed himself, praying to God for guidance.

He left the church in a daze, and so he hardly noticed the young woman perched on the fence outside. When she moved, he startled and shied like a horse. She gave him an odd look, and he did his best to regain his composure.

"Hello Catrina. It's a lovely night out, isn't it?"

The girl's blue eyes narrowed sullenly, arms crossed in front of her.

"Things are dangerous at night," she warned him ",you shouldn't be so flippant about it."

He smiled tolerantly and nodded, biting back protests. She hopped off her post at the fence, and wandered over to him with a cautious look. The priest made room for her on the path, and smiled again politely.

She followed him when he began to trudge home, but refused to look at him, staring at the path instead. The priest was disappointed to see that Beatrice still hadn't convinced the young woman to take a proper bath this week. Her straw-gold hair was grubby, and her face was smudged with dirt. At least she had been shoved into the tub last week. She would have smelled quite terrible otherwise.

"How are you these days Catrina?" he asked, trying to make pleasant conversation.

"Fine enough. Miss Beatrice treats me right good, even if she does scare me a bit."

"Still getting used to living in a house?"

"I sleep in the garden when she'll let me. Good earth is better than rotten boards and mattresses."

She gave him a guilty glance.

"Don't tell Miss Beatrice I said that. Her beds are real good, honest. I just can't stand 'em."

The priest smiled despite himself, and nodded conspiratorially. The young woman was likely a little older than him in reality, but she still gave off a charmingly child-like air.

"Will I see you this Sunday Miss Catrina?"

Catrina looked significantly uncomfortable.

"It's not that I don't like you mister priest. It's just your holy building scares me a bit it all. What if I burn up when I go in? I hear some actually do, if they aren't holy enough, and I ain't holy by any stretch."

"I'm sure you would be fine Catrina. You're a very lovely young woman, and god forgives all his children their trespasses."

Catrina fidgeted uncomfortably, and glanced at the priest furtively in a way that made him want to cover himself a little. He restrained the urge, and continued walking.

"Mister Priest? You ever think we're supposed to be somewhere else?"

The priest glanced over at her.

"Perhaps you could elaborate for me?"

"Like- like we're supposed to be doing something else, and just forgot about it for a bit. Like we're forgetting something real important and can't quite figure out what it is."

She tucked her head in towards her chest, flushing.

"I thought it when I saw you first mister priest. Like I was supposed to be doing something real important."

The priest debated if this was a pass at him, or a legitimate worry. He decided on the latter, and responded accordingly.

"Sometimes God calls us to do things in our lives, and gives us hints through such portents. Do you have any idea what this important thing might be?"

She shook her head, looking frustrated "I just know I get it when I see you, and when I see some other people too. It's like you're familiar, and I need to tell you something real bad, but I'm _forgetting_ all the time."

The priest nodded sympathetically.

"Visions can be confusing. Give it time and god will bring forth the meaning." He smiled "I myself have been having troubles with visions as of late. Headaches, terror, the sound of wings and a light. I have no idea what it may mean."

Catrina had stopped, and the priest turned to see if she was following. She stood stock-still in the road, staring at him.

"I been having those too. I thought it was just me being mad but-"

She leapt forward suddenly, and the priest stumbled back to avoid her.

"Have you been having the familiarity too? Like you've seen people before? Like you know 'em and can't remember why?"

"Catrina I-"

"Like Lily, the herb-lady! She's familiar right? Or that fisherman down at the docks! Or the poacher! Or the man in the woods!"

The priest ground to a halt.

" _The man in the woods?!"_

Catrina realized what she had said, blanched, and scurried backwards.

"'S not important. Have you seen anyone who you recognize without recognizing?"

The priest stepped forward, his face furious.

"Catrina, the Man in the Woods is _dangerous_! He's half-feral! The crown has been trying to catch him for years now, and he's torn half of them to shreds!"

"'S not like he saw me or anything," Catrina said defensively "I'm good at being stealthy-like, and he didn't pay me no nevermind. Anyway, I'm not raised so different from him."

"Catrina you need to be _careful!_ It's dangerous out there, and we would all be _horrified_ if something were to happen to you. What would Miss Beatrice think if you didn't come home one night? What would I do if I found out you were hurt, or dead?"

Catrina flushed deeply, and fiddled with her thumbs. She pursed her lips though.

"You know what I'm talking about though, don't you? Miss Lily, the fisherman, the poacher. Them and the man in the woods. Have you met them?"

Lily was the only one familiar in the list, and the priest knew he had met her a hundred times for some malady or another. He had even blessed sick men and women within her hut, and been thanked for it many times. But surely that was all. There was no subtle tug as he saw her, or holy vision as he heard her sweet voice.

"What about me then?" Catrina asked "Did you get it when you first met me?"

The priest was about to answer in a negative, but found himself caught.

There _had_ been a strange tug of familiarity when he first met the young woman. A niggling in the back of his mind, like he was forgetting something important. He had ignored it at the time, considered it unimportant, but if she was getting this feeling too…

The priest turned to speak to Catrina, but she was gone. He could hear the faint rustling of the trees as she ran away, but decided not to pursue. Chasing Catrina through the woods was line chasing a squirrel, or a house cat. He was better off not trying.

The priest sighed, and continued on his way home, wanting nothing more than a good night's sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

And that should have been it. But the priest found himself tossing and turning with the thoughts that night, and contemplating what Catrina had said.

He had felt this strange thing when he first met Catrina; that much was true. But had he also felt it when he met Miss Lily? Surely not. Whatever he had felt around her was only butterflies in his stomach, like all the young men did when they saw her. It was a tugging of the flesh, nothing more. Something to be ignored and conquered, not given heed.

So the next morning when he went to the herb-shop, it was nothing but a coincidence.

His headaches, after all could have been nothing holy at all, but simple stress getting to him. He certainly didn't want to try and pursue a vision brought on by a bad cold, so it was logical to try material methods to cure it first. That was all there was to it.

Miss Lily was working in her garden as he walked up, the sun playing most beautifully in her hair. She had an assistant in Samuel, the woodcutter's boy. She was laughing most prettily at something he said, like a little bell, and he was grinning foolishly as the priest walked up.

"Good morning Miss Lily, good morning Samuel. It's a fine day out isn't it?"

Samuel jumped up immediately, looking guilty "Father Orrin. I was just helping Miss Lily mend the fence this morning."

The priest glanced over at the fence, which was well mended, but also several feet away from what they were doing at the moment.

"That was good of you, Samuel, helping someone in need. I'm glad you're behaving so virtuously."

Samuel blushed, and murmured something about needing to get back home. He ran off, looking quite chastened.

"Oh there was no need to do that," Lily said "He was being a perfect gentleman."

"I- didn't actually mean to." The priest said, looking frazzled "I meant it as a sincere compliment."

Lily laughed loudly, and pushed herself up from the garden earth.

"Well Father Orrin, what can I do for you today?"  
The priest found himself blushing, and coughed several times awkwardly.

"Headaches." He said "I been having them and was wondering-"

He suddenly found his priestly collar very tight, and tugged at it awkwardly. Lily tittered and smiled sweetly.

"Yes of course Father Orrin. I'm quite sure I have several cures stowed away for that. Come with me?"

Lily's home was adorned with herbs in great quantity, drying on the walls and hanging from the ceiling. She had several cots laid out, and great shelves filled with everything from ointments to tonics to bandages and back again.

"Are there any other specifics you can give me?" Lily asked "Have you been experiencing them at any particular times, or are there any other symptoms along with it?"

The priest thought of the terror and flapping of wings.

"No other complaints." He said "They're mostly at night, when I'm finishing my prayers."

She smiled "Are you sure it isn't some vision from God?"

And the priest laughed, because it was so close to what he expected.

"I haven't ruled it out." He said.

She smiled again.

"Well, visions from God I don't have much experience with, but we all know you tend to overwork yourself. If it's an exhaustion headache, then this should do the trick."

She plunked a little bundle down on the counter.

"I work myself too hard?"

"And we all know it. Anyway, boil this for tea, and drink a cup morning, and one more whenever feel a headache coming on."

She gave him a pointed look, like a stern older sister: "But the best cure is good sleep and relaxation Father Orrin. I'll tell some of the boys to help with chores if you need it, just stay in good health, okay?"

The priest smiled, and nodded obediently.

"Thank you Miss Lily. I'll make sure to do that."

He handed her a few coins and she patted him on the head affectionately.

"Good boy."

And the priest had to admit it: there was an odd twinge of familiarity to this kind of scene. Something about the tone of her voice, or the look of her face. It was more than simple recognition, it was _familiar_.

She frowned at his expression, and furrowed her brow.

"Where there anything else your holiness?"

"Have you ever felt like you're supposed to be someone else?"

Her eyebrows shot up into her hairline, and the priest immediately felt like a dolt for saying it. Lily, however, tapped a finger on her lips, and appeared to think about it.

"Well… sometimes I do feel like there's something I'm missing out on. Like I'm forgetting something? But everyone daydreams every now and then. I think it's nothing more than that. After all, we take what God gives to us, right?"

The priest nodded, abashedly. He found himself unable to voice any of the thousand thoughts tumbling through his head.

"Of course. Sorry to ask you such a silly question."

And he left as if nothing at all was wrong, bundle of herbs in hand.

The priest wanted to immediately forget the whole debacle. But now the signs were showing up too clearly to simply ignore, even if it was nothing akin to _proof_ yet.

He was craving some fish anyway, and it had been a long time since he had visited the seashore. A little trip to find the harbor wouldn't hurt, even if this was a fool's errand. And if he _did_ happen to find this fisherman that Catrina had mentioned… well he'd deal with that as it came.


	3. Chapter 3

The harbor was loud, and crowded, and smelled of sweat and meat, and sewage, and of course: _fish_.

The priest had quite completely forgot how insanely crowded the seaside town was, and found himself in complete despair over how to find one unnamed fisherman in such a mess. He wandered down the market streets, feeling meek and foolish, occasionally checking to see if his coin purse was still there. He had already spent a couple silver coins on the cart ride here, and would hardly like to find himself unable to pay the fair back to his little village.

Several street urchins came barreling down the way, and he barely dodged them, almost running to a street vendor, who gave him a very sour look. Father Orrin apologized profusely, and took refuge against a wall, feeling less like a priest and more like a mouse with every passing second.

"You filthy _cheat_ " A voice shouted from the crowd "These birds are worth _twice_ that and you know it!"

The priest felt a very sudden jolting recognition, and whirled around towards the young lady, who was currently shouting at a very sour-faced vender. She was holding several partridges, gesturing widely and angrily. He had no idea what she was saying, but it didn't take much to guess that it was a matter of price.

Without thinking, the priest shoved through the crowds to get there, shouting out "Excuse me!" the whole time. He nearly barreled over the woman when he reached her, and she turned to give him a furious _glare_.

He choked, and spluttered for a moment, and then blurted out: "I'd actually like to buy some partridges. Would you be willing to sell them to me?"

The woman looked taken aback, and then grinned widely. The merchant looked extremely upset, while she puffed up with pride.

"Partridges aren't cheap you know." She said "These are fresh too, and fat."

"How much would you like for them?" he asked, readily.

"Three gold, for the whole lot."

The priest paled very suddenly.

"I- don't have nearly that much, I'm afraid. Perhaps I could just buy one or two?"

The woman sighed, as if being put upon.

"Well I'll tell you what. The merchants around here are all scumbags, and won't buy my birds proper. And I may want one of these birds myself. So I'll give you _three_ of them for two gold. You won't get a better deal than that."

The priest shook his head meekly "I only have one and a few silver."

Even that was a great deal more than he usually spend in a week.

"How many silver."

"Six. And I need two to take a cart back home."

The woman looked him up and down, making a great show of pursing her lips. Then she nodded curtly.

"Seeing as you're a man of god and all, I suppose I can go as low as one and four." She paused, and then shook her head, scowling at herself. "One and two. I'm not going to leave a holy man penniless."

He smiled in abject relief, and they shook on it. The birds and coin changed hands, and the priest was left wondering what in the world he would do with three fat partridges. As the girl started to walk away, the priest stopped her.

"I- don't suppose you would share one with me?"

The woman looked incredulous, and she gave a burst of laughter "Well, if you want to squander away your purchase, who am I to say no?"

There were plenty of chefs who would cook a bird for a few copper, and once they had one roasted, they sat on a wall bordering the docks, chewing pleasantly on their meat.

"So what's this about, holy man? Are you going to tell me the error of my ways or some such?"

"So you _are_ a poacher then."

"I never admitted to such. Just because a lady has a few partridges in her possession doesn't make her a poacher. Even if you usually only find them on king's ground, there _are_ exceptions."

"I didn't mean-" he paused and decided to re-evaluate his strategy.

"Have you ever met a girl named Catrina?"

"Once or twice." She said "Scraggly little thing."

The woman then paused, and gave him a long hard look.

"I'll be. You're that priest of her's, aren't you?"

He was taken aback "Her priest?"

The woman gestured at him with a drumstick "She never shuts up about you. You're the best thing under the heavens and above the earth, as far as she's concerned. But this wasn't anything about partridges, was it? You saw me and got that _tingling_ feeling, didn't you? You knew that you'd seen me in a different life."

"Well I- different lives are a completely heathen-"

She rounded on him, triumphant. "You _did,_ I knew it! You're trying to find the rest of us, aren't you!"

The priest spluttered "Now see here!" and then immediately lost his train of thought. "The- rest of who?"

The woman shrugged "Heck if I know. But I know where you can find the 'fisherman'. I wander these docks enough that I found him a while back. After what little Catrina said, I figured it would be good to keep tabs on him, just in case there was something to all of this."

She tore the few scraps of meat of her share with quick efficiency, and wiped her hands on her pants to get the grease off.

"Come on." She said "I'll introduce you."

The priest tried to protest, but found himself dragged along anyway. They dumped the bones in the harbor, and the remaining dead partridges thumped around the priest's neck as the strange woman nearly shoved him through the crowds.


	4. Chapter 4

Hundreds of ships and sailors and fishermen crowded the docks, one looking much the same as another to the priest's eyes.

"Hafros!" the woman bellowed, and the priest very nearly fell over in surprise.

From the mass of the crowd came a gruff voice yelling: "What?!"

A red head bobbed over the crowd, followed by a red-speckled-white beard.

Eyes shielded with a hand, and the face broke out into a grin.

"Aderyn!" the man shouted, and the crowd was very nearly flattened as the most enormous sailor the priest had ever seen barreled through them.

He grabbed up the woman in a bear-crushing hug, and she thumped on his chest affectionately, while both of them laughed until the priest's ear drums felt like they were going to burst.

"Now what's this all about?" the fisherman rumbled, and he mussed the woman's hair like a little sister.

She laughed, and gestured to the priest with thumb over her shoulder: "Take a look for yourself!"

The great colossus of a man peered down at the priest from on high, tilting his head to the side. He skimmed his eyes up the priest's figure, and then down, and then up again. The priest very suddenly wished he was larger, and perhaps slightly more muscular. He felt little an effeminate reed next to this man.

"Well I'll be." Hafros murmured, and jerked a finger over his shoulder.

"You two should come inside the ship's cabin. We'll talk it over there, aye?"

He turned without waiting for a response, and boarded one of the larger fishing vessels, leaving Aderyn and the priest to follow regardless.

"First thing!" the man said, once they were inside "Introductions! Hardly proper to talk when we don't even properly know each other."

He grabbed a bottle of rum from a nearby shelf, and flopped down onto a wooden bench to enjoy it.

"My name is Hafros." He said "I'm the captain of this here vessel, small as it is, and I've lived here most of my life. Parents were sailors too, believe it or not. They came from further away than this though, both of them, and my brothers have ranged a bit closer to home. Never felt much of a hankering to return myself though."

The priest sat down gently, and declined the rum.

"I am generally known as Father Orrin. Orrin Carrig, if you want to know. I grew up in the hill country, but took a liking to the church early on, and was assigned to a village near here when they heard the last priest had passed away."

"You got any family Carrig?"

"Only my mother. The church takes good care of her, back in our home town."

Hafros nodded sagely, and turned his gaze to Aderyn.

"You already know me." She protested.

"Did you bother to introduce yourself to the boy here though? I bet you didn't."

Aderyn shrugged uncomfortably.

"Not much to know. I have parents, more or less. My name is Aderyn. I hunt things. It's how I get by. That's all there really is to know about me."

The priest decided to change the subject, before they made her more uncomfortable.

"How do you two understand…" he waved his hand around "All of this? The recognitions, visions of sorts? Do you have those too?"

Aderyn smiled, mischievously "Halfros here thinks we're all chosen ones of some sort. Chosen by… Odin, was it? I'm not so sure myself, but it's as good an explanation as any."

"It's the _ONLY_ explanation." Hafros bellowed. "I'll swear it!"

Aderyn gave a twinkling grin at the priest "He's a heathen too, by the way. Disciple of Thor. You're surrounded by us, it seems."

The priest nodded, feeling queasy. He had, in fact, already noticed a hammer talisman around Halfros's neck, but had thought it polite not to mention it.

"Assuming- that I buy into all of this— that we're tied together in some way, at least," the priest said ",then what would you say we're _meant_ to do?"

Halfros shrugged dramatically, and Aderyn looked unhappy.

"Beat's me." Hafros said "I figure the gods will show us sooner or later. Till then, we just keep an eye out for each other and for the rest of the gang."

"There's seven of us."

They both looked at the priest, and he blushed.

"Seven- or maybe eight. That- sounds right, doesn't it?"

Hafros paused and rubbed his beard, and Aderyn pursed her lips. She was the first to nod.

"I think you're on to something there holy man. It does seem like there should be seven of us, at least."

The priest felt something like vertigo, and swallowed hard. He counted off on his fingers, his hands shaking.

"You two, me, and Catrina. Then Lily, that's the herb-woman in my village, I think she's part of it too. And- Catrina also mentioned the Man in the Woods. That- still only makes six."

"So we're still missing someone." Hafros rumbled.

"Or two people, if it's eight." Aderyn corrected.

Hafros nodded solemnly. He looked so serious that the priest suddenly imagined him as a priest on a pulpit, heathen or no.

"Well there doesn't seem to be much clue about the seventh _or_ eighth member." Hafros said, regretfully. "So we'll have to leave that to fate a bit. But this man in the woods-"

"-NO."

"-Absolutely not!"

Aderyn and the priest responded up on top of each other, and Hafros blinked at them confusedly from under his great bushy eyebrows.

"Now why not?!"

"The Man in the Woods-" the priest said "-is an absolute terror, a criminal, and extremely dangerous."

Aderyn nodded in vigorous agreement "You don't mess with a wild man like that Hafros. They say he'll tear out your throat with his teeth, and is half mad besides."

"Now _that_ sounds like superstition to me." Hafros said firmly, completely ignoring the priest's incredulous glances at the Norse hammer charm around his neck.

"Even so." the priest said "He isn't to be trifled with. There are knights all from here to the fair city hunting for him. To associate with him would be a crime in of itself!"

"And I'm at bad enough with the king's men already." Aderyn cut in.

Hafros harrumphed loudly, and looked down at them with all the judgement he could muster (which was a considerable amount).

"You two have already agreed that this destiny stuff is important." He chastised them "So it stands to reason that if the Catrina girl says he's one of us— and she hasn't been wrong yet— then we need to meet the fellow. Danger or no."

The two looked taken aback, but couldn't find anything to protest that. Slowly, they nodded. The priest found himself contemplating his life choices, and wondering if this mission was _really_ so holy that it was worth it.

"So when can you two make it up to the forest?" the priest asked, nervously.

"Me?!" Hafros said, guffawing "I'm set to sail out fishing from dawn till dusk! I have whole crews of men relying on me being there! You two will have to do it on your own."

"But you just said it was our duty!" the priest protested.

"I have more than one duty!" Hafros said "And I won't abandon this one. The fish still need catching, and you two can bring the fellow to meet me when you're done."

The priest wanted to protest that Hafros didn't seem to understand the gravity or danger of the Man in the Woods, but Aderyn was already nodding.

"Understood. We'll report back to you as soon as we can."

She guided the priest out of the cabin, waving a goodbye to the sailor as they did.

"It's no use arguing with him. I learned that a long time ago. And besides, with the ruckus he'd cause stumbling through the woods, we'd never find so much as a scared rabbit."

"But- the two of us can't possibly hope to survive an encounter with the Man in the Woods. At least with _him_ we had some muscle."

Aderyn looked at him, and scoffed "Now holy man. Just because I don't _want_ to meet the man in the woods doesn't mean I can't take care of myself. Besides, he's one of us, right? We've got nothing to be afraid of."

It felt like she was trying to convince herself as much as him.


	5. Chapter 5

It was several days before they set off, and during that time the priest didn't see hide not hair of Catrina. He had to report to Aderyn that it was just going to be the two of them, and the woman shrugged, resigned.

"It's a pity." She said "Since she's actually seen the man, it would be a great deal easier to find him with her in tow."

"Do you- have any ideas for how to find him without her?"

Aderyn nodded grimly "A few. We'll have to make do with what we have."

They had two packs of food and water they brought along, and Aderyn persuaded the priest to change into normal trousers and a tunic. Once they were in the woods, he became very quickly glad for this, as it became obvious his normal priestly robes would have caught on just about everything, and sweltered him in the heat besides.

Aderyn wore her bow, along with a quiver of arrows, which made the priest somewhat more reassured. He had thought about borrowing a weapon of some sort from the village, but couldn't quite stomach the thought, so he had a large walking stick instead, which he was also very glad for as the day wore on.

Aderyn taught him bits and pieces about the woods as they walked, pointing out a track here, a track there. She knew a fair few plants that could cure maladies as well, though not nearly as many as Miss Lily did.

When they broke for lunch, the priest asked Aderyn what her plan for finding the Man in the Woods was. She looked decidedly displeased.

"Truth be told," she admitted "I was hoping we would find some tracks. See, everyone in villages say that the Man in the Woods is the King of the bandits. And a group like that would leave _some_ kind of trail. _"_

"Because there are so many? Perhaps we just haven't crossed their trail."

Aderyn shook her head.

"We've been walking near the river for quite some time. And Catrina said she saw the man near these parts, so if there was a camp we'd see some sign of tracks. People need to come for provisions, water being chief among them. Even if they hide far in the forest to keep away from the King's knights, a camp that size needs heavy stores to keep going."

"But- he _is_ a bandit. The bandit king- isn't he?"

Aderyn purse her lips tight "That's only what village folk think holy man. And they say that because of what he does to the knights who come after him."

The priest tried very, very hard not to be afraid.

"Us who roam the wilds know that he's probably only one man. Those more prone to superstition say he's actually a beast, in the skin of a man. He's not gentle to those that roam into his territory and cause a ruckus. He can be downright cruel sometimes, from what I hear. If we didn't have this whole destiny shlock to haul us here, there's _no way_ I would have come."

"So- how do we find him then?"

"I set several traps in the woods."

"Yes I noticed." He had decided to be politely tolerant, as he wasn't one to be judgmental of how others made their living. "But those weren't large enough for humans, by any stretch."

"You misunderstand."

The priest suddenly noticed that Aderyn's hands were shaking, and his hand slowly went for the staff. She smiled, all forced teeth and terror, but didn't bother going for her bow.

"We're already in his woods holy man. And _I set traps here_."

 **"Too right you did."**

The holy man was on his feet in second, brandishing the staff like a proper warrior at every bush and tree. It was knocked out of his hands before he could blink, and the priest found himself pinned to the ground, facing the maw of an angry wolf.

The priest saw wolf, then man, then wolf, then something else entirely. His eyes focused, and he found a man crouching above him, with an expression grimmer than death itself.

The man was scarred with pale stripes up and down his chest, his eyes were dangerous and feral, and he wore the hide of the biggest wolf that the priest had ever seen. He carried to weapons, but his scarred knuckles were around the priest's throat.

Aderyn had come to her feet, but still hadn't gone for her bow. The priest expected to see her quailing like a frightened little girl, but she was actually glaring down the beast man with just as much ferocity, if not even more.

"Let him go." She said, and her eyes were burning coals.

The beast man looked amused. **"And what if I don't?"**

Without thinking, the priest clocked him in the jaw.

The beast man tumbled over backwards, looking shocked, and then was on his feet, snarling. Now Aderyn _did_ draw her bow, and loosed an arrow at him, missing by barely a hair. He rushed her, and crashed her back into a tree, when the priest hit him over the head with the staff. The man grabbed at it, but this time the priest leapt backwards out of his grasp, and stood at the ready, brandishing the rod with his feet set wide and his eyes burning bright.

Aderyn stared at him "Holy man since when can you-"

 **"Since he needed to, that's when."** The beast man growled, and let his pin on Aderyn go.

She started to reach for her bow again, but the man snarled something fierce, and she stopped.

 **"If I wanted you two to be dead, you'd be dead. Sit. We'll talk."**

Suddenly, the priest felt exceedingly silly in his little stance, holding his heavy stick. He moved out of it, and nearly dropped the staff.

The beast man smiled and jabbed a claw- finger rather- at him and his stick.

 **" _That's_ why the fight. In case you're wondering. We show our true colors best in peril, and he's still got a bit of it hidden."** He looked at the holy man, calculating " **Though- I probably could have taken you. I seem to remember that you always did wait until the dramatic moment to get really tough, and this isn't quite that."**

Then, to both their great surprise, he reached forward and gave the priest an affectionate pat on the head. The priest stared at him, and at the fanged beast he wore as a hood.

"Did you kill that with your bare hands?" he asked.

 **"Sit."** The man repeated. **"We'll talk."**

They both sat. The man looked at them expectantly, and it felt as if they were supposed to say something.

"Well-" the priest said "You seem to actually know more about this than we do. We recognize people, randomly. One of- _us_ , seems to think that it's a sign of us being the chosen ones or something."

The man nodded **"I don't know nearly as much as you think. There something different about us. I show it easy. You show it harder."**

He glanced at Aderyn.

 **"The bow isn't your weapon. You're bare handed, like me."**

Aderyn looked incredulous "You think I should _punch_ birds?"

He shrugged, gestured to the wolf pelt " **You're right, I took this thing down with my hands and teeth, and nothing else. Normal man couldn't do that."**

"And the visions?" the priest asked "Have you had visions?"

 **"Always danger, always ends with a light. Sometimes I'm in danger, sometimes I'm protecting. Right?"**

The priest realized that was it. That was _exactly_ it. He found Aderyn was nodding as well. The beast man growled with pleasure.

 **"You."** He said, jabbing a finger at the priest **"I remember in specific."**

"Me?" the priest asked.

The man nodded **"You stabbed me. With a spear."**

The priest looked scared, and tried to remember if any of his headaches had anything to do with that.

"I- don't think I would do that."

The beast man growled, and stood up.

 **"No difference. It was a good thing though, I know that. Made me as powerful as I am."** He patted the priest again, with that instinctual but awkward affection **"I hold no grudge for it."**

He turned to Aderyn " **But if you ever set traps in me woods again, I'll tear you apart. Destiny or no."**

And then, in an instant, he was gone.


	6. Chapter 6

The trudge back was a glum one. They had survived. They could say that much. However, he had promptly left and given them precious little information.

"What do we do now?" Aderyn asked "He was the only lead we had."

She looked at her fists, and half-heartedly tried to punch a tree branch. She yelped when it connected, but the priest barely noticed.

"He knew me. That was for sure. And I knew him. It was more than the rest. I felt kind of like that when I saw Catrina for the first time."

"What are you mumbling about priest? Are you even hearing me?"

"It'll be all right." He said "It'll all be all right."

Then there was a sudden shout. And the thunder of horse hooves burst through the forest like an earthquake. Bodies burst from the forest, horses crashing through the trees, and like a wall of flesh the riders surrounded them.

The priest looked up and found himself looking at the point of a sword. Ridiculously, he felt a spark of joy and hope.

 _Of course_ , he thought, _of course they're a knight._

Then he looked further up the sword, and found himself, utterly, totally, wrong.

The man at the other end of the sword was pale as milk, and dressed from tip to toe in leather and steel armor, painted black as could be. It was a mercenary's garb, plain and simple, but it had the King's crest painted on the front.

"Well, well." the man said, and his face snarled cruelly "Look what we have here. I suppose it's my lucky day."

The he turned to his compatriots and shouted "We've got a couple of poachers here! Who's ready to string them up by their thumbs?!"

There was a roar of approval, and the priest realized that he was quite terrified.

"Now look here." he said, trying to be reasonable "We aren't poachers, or anything of the sort. I'm a priest at a village just a few miles from here and-"

The man interrupted him by bursting into hearty laughter "A priest! Oh that's good! That's really good!"

"I _am!"_ the priest protested "There is a whole town full of villagers who can vouch for me!"

One of the other soldiers piped up "And I suppose the lady beside you has the _bow_ because it's a holy relic?" They all laughed, and Aderyn clutched the bow to her chest and scowled at them

"It tisn't against any law for a lady to defend herself, now is it?"

"And what's a lady doing in the woods anyway? And with a _priest_ tagging along?" one of the men shouted, and another chorus of jeers broke out. One of them made a crude comment as to what they might have been doing, and they all broke into laughter, while the priest blushed redder than a tomato. He didn't know what to do in a situation like this. It was completely foreign to him.

"Tie them up!" shouted the leader "And sling them over the horses!"

Aderyn, desperate, made a sudden dash for it, but one of the man grabbed her by the arm and hauled her upwards. She snatched an arrow from her quiver and stabbed his hand with it, making him drop her with a howl. She started to run again, then a dozen men were clammering upon her, pinning her to the ground.

"WILD MAN!" she shrieked "HELP US!" she bit one of them, but ten more piled on.

"She's in league with the bandit!" one of them shouted, and another socked her in the jaw.

"Aderyn stop!" the priest pleaded "You're only making it worse!"

"What happens if they catch me holy man?!" she shouted back at him.

A poacher could lose a hand for something petty, a head for something dire. He didn't know which she had earned.

And the priest was torn, because there really was a whole village of people to vouch for him. If he walked away right now, or submitted peacefully, then he would be able to go home, and be safe.

One of the men twisted Aderyn's arm behind her back, and she screamed. The leader laughed, a hideous cruel laugh. There was a pain in his head, and a flapping of wings, and that terrible laughter, and without knowing exactly what he was doing the priest was somehow on top of the leader's horse, and pummeling the mercenary's face in with all his might.

They crashed to the ground together, the sword going flying, and the leader _hissed_ and struggled to shove the priest off, wrapping hands around his throat and squeezing as tight as he could. The priest responded to that by giving him a bloody nose.

Aderyn somehow managed to wriggle half free, and was clawing at the men's faces something fierce. The priest knew that any moment the beast man would come barreling through the woods and save them. Maybe Hafros would suddenly pop up as well, a hammer in hand, and whack them all sideways like bowling pins. Then the priest was on the ground, pinned, and the hands were around his throat again. He gasped and choked to no avail, and the man in black sneered at him in cruel delight.

"Seems you aren't at your full strength little _holy man_." The man sneered.

Aderyn was being tied up; bound with ropes, trussed like a chicken for dinner. The man in black armor squeezed harder on the priest's throat, and laughed even louder than before. Above them, perched in the trees, the priest saw a glint of blue eyes.

Then everything went black.

When he woke, the priest was in a dungeon. The holy man, with all his years of good deeds, and wonderful preaching, and prayers and faithful service, was chained to a dungeon wall like a low brutish criminal.

He found himself worrying about the service that weekend. Who would run it without him? What would they think? Even if he did get back, there would be some quite terrible stories to tell about him. Arrested in the company of a poacher, known to be a consort of the bandit in the woods. What would they think of him?

He wished that he could talk to Aderyn.

She had brought him to Hafros, she had tracked down the Man in the Woods. She always seemed to know what to do next. She was a good woman, even if she was a poacher.

He was so alone in here.

He heard the sound of boots on stone, and door creaked open. A dark figure came in: the leader of the soldiers, with a cruel grin on his face. Very quickly, the priest wished he was alone again.

"Well, well." The man said "So we meet again."

"I'm not a criminal." The priest argued, his throat rasping.

"You assaulted a man of the law." The soldier said. " _That_ is certainly a crime, you must admit."

There was still a proper harvest of ripe bruises on the man's face, along with a crooked nose, and the priest could hardly bring himself to argue with such evidence. A wide grin came to the man's face, and he suddenly seemed much larger than he was.

"Well _holy man_. For the duration of this visit you may think of me as _Devil."_

He drew out several sharp objects from his person.

"Please," the priest said "I'm sorry for what I did. There's no need to torture me."

"Oh this goes _far_ beyond that." The man said. "You don't seem to remember it, but I do."

There was a pain in his head, the flapping of wings, and cruel laughter. The man in front of him seemed to swell to several times his size.

"Like I said." the mercenary said "The Devil. Here to collect on old debts."

Soon after, the screaming began.


	7. Chapter 7

The same evening that Aderyn and the priest were taken, Hafros returned to the docks as every day, and found a pair of accusing blue eyes waiting for him on the shore.

He hailed Catrins cheerily, and hopped off the boat to give the girl a good hug. She glared at him, and backed away.

"You didn' go with them."

Hafros stopped short, and raised an eyebrow "Aderyn and the priest? Too right I didn't. I've got a great number of people relying on me for this job, and destiny will wait."

"You _jerk_!" Catrina screamed at him, and smacked her fist ineffectually on his chest.

Hafros caught her arm before she could do it again "Now hold on. Those two can handle themselves fine on their own. The man in the woods is one of us, after all."

"Wasn't the Man in the Woods!" Catrina screamed, and everyone in the dock looked.

Hafros laughed loudly, and clapped her on the back "Oh, I'm only teasing niece." He said, loudly so everyone could hear "I know when you pick a man it'll be a more reputable sort than that!"

He put a hand on her back and nearly shoved her towards the ship's cabin. The sailors gave him many sympathetic glances as he did, some of them having little relatives of their own with romantic tendencies.

As soon as the cabin door shut, Hafros turned to Catrina, face grave.

"What do you mean it wasn't the man in the woods?"

Catrina sniffled, and paced about the room.

"The King's men got 'em. They took them in as poachers and con-conspiri- people working with the man in the woods."

Hafros looked solem as the grave "That's bad news. Bad news indeed. Never thought Aderyn would get caught like that."

Catrina sobbed "She never coulda been if I'd not sent 'em after the man in the woods. 'E had a whole troop on his heel. _Course_ they got caught."

She pounded her fists on her head. "Stupid, stupid, _stupid."_

Hafros looked profoundly unnerved by this, and not sure what to do. He gathered up a pack from the side of the ship, and threw a few things in it. Rope, food, a hammer, bandages, the like. He filled up a second pack similarly, and tossed it at Catrina. She caught it, barely, and looked up at him with wet eyes.

"What-"

"I messed up." Hafros admitted. "They needed me, and I wasn't there. I need to fix that."

Then a grin took over his face, wild and mischievous.

"You coming?"

It was days that the priest spent in that cell, he was sure of it.

There was no light where he was, but they brought him food every now and then. He had more than ten meals, though his stomach was begging for more, and he didn't know how long he had been passed out. So it was days, at the very least.

Every now and then, the devil man would come back, and make sure he didn't grow too comfortable. The priest was quite sure that there were supposed to be trials, even for poachers and bandits and conspirators. He was quite sure that even if he had been found guilty, he would have been released by now, or killed. They cut off hands for smaller game, and executed you for larger things. Even for attacking a knight, there was no torture. The devil man hadn't even asked him any questions. He just seemed to have an irrational hatred for the priest. The priest knew there was something to it, but in the pain it kept slipping from his mind.

He wondered if Aderyn had lost her head.

The priest closed his eyes, and murmured his prayers. One must never lose hope, he told himself. The heavens will see us through. One must never lose hope.

There was a rattling at the door, and the priest felt his heart sink. It wasn't time for food, he knew. That meant the devil man was back, and a new bout of pain was soon to come.

The door rattled louder, and a soft voice whispered through the keyhole.

"Mister priest? You 'ere?"

He recognized that voice.

"Catrina?" the priest rasped, and tears started to roll down his face.

"Be back soon Mister priest. Just need ta find the keys."

A frantic pattering of footsteps sounded, and the priest fought back the urge to ask her to stay. He took deep breaths, and murmured another prayer. It felt like it was hours before Catrina came back to the door, but it was probably only minutes.

Once the door opened, Catrina was at his side in a moment, rattling at his chains, and he was crying in earnest. She cursed in several degrees, and jammed picks and pins into the lock quite furiously until they came loose with a _crack_. The priest went tumbling down, and she just barely caught him before he hit the floor.

"They not been feeding you?" she muttered furiously "Ya feel like a feather."

He grabbed ahold of her shoulders, and hugged her close, not even caring about the impropriety of it.

"I thought you _hated_ me Catrina. I didn't see you for nearly a week."

She stared at him in disbelief, and then shook her head furiously.

He laughed, between the tears, and did his best to stand up. Catrina gave him a shoulder to lean on, and they hobbled towards the door together. Catrina was biting her lip.

They walked down the hallway, slow and steady, and then up the stairs, one by one.

"We'll never make it." The priest said in realization. "We can't escape a castle like this."

"Leeme worry about that." Catrina said, but he could tell it was bluster.

"Catrina you can't do this," he said, his voice coming out a whisper "You'll just get caught too!"

She glared at him.

"I _will_ do it. Do it proper too. Watch me."

The priest closed his eyes and prayed.

They took the stairs one by one, and passed a room full of sleeping guards. The priest saw empty tankards in their hands, and murmured to Catrina: "Did you…"

"I spiked their ale." She murmured back "Lily gave me the stuff to do it."

"Lily's here?"

She nodded.

Up they went past the guards, one step and then another. There were empty suits of armor linin the stairs in alcoves and their empty visors seemed to glare at the intruders.

The priest was tiring, and he was sagging further and further into Catrina's grip. Then, above them, there was the sound of boots on stone. The priest pressed his eyes shut, and tried keep the hope alive.

"Into the alcove." Catrina said "Quick."

She nearly shoved him behind a suit of armor, wrapping his arms around the wooden pole it was mounted on, and then dashed behind another herself.

Black boots passed them, hitting the ground heavily. The priest could hear the clink of torture tools in their box. The devil man had started using more and more exotic methods when he grew bored, and the priest had to fight down the scream in his throat.

The world stilled. The priest thought of what might happen to Catrina if she was caught. The boots passed. They rounded the corner.

"What are you mongrels doing; asleep on the job?! Incompetent!"

Any minute now, he was going to find the door open, and come roaring back up the passage. They had to go _now._

The priest hauled himself from behind the armor, and dragged Catrina from hers. They staggered up the stairs. He didn't lean on her, couldn't afford it. They had to be quiet until the very last minute. One step, another.

There were several thumps, along with insults below. The priest knew that the poor guards would have a great deal to pay for soon enough. The doorway was ahead. It was open. They stumbled out into the stone hallway. There was the light of the stars shining through the window.

Below them, there was a bloodcurdling scream of fury.

And now they ran.


	8. Chapter 8

It didn't matter how much his legs hurt, or how much he wanted to fall over. They had to run or they would be caught and they would die. They could hear the shrieks behind them, and the calls for guards. The priest stumbled, and Catrina caught him and shoved him onward. The castle seemed to reverberate with the sound of clattering armor. They weren't going to make it.

Then a door opened, and they were yanked inside. They hit the ground. Catrina came up spitting and hissing, ready for a fight.

By the doorway, a hooded figure put a finger to his lips and made a quiet " _shhhhhhhhh"._

Catrina stopped, and they heard the sounds of armored footsteps pass them, retreated into the distance. They waited for a moment, two. The sounds faded, and drifted into silence.

Then the figure moved to the wall, and pressed a switch. The wall moved, and a great spiral staircase revealed itself. The hooded figure beckoned to them.

The priest struggled to stand, and Catrina helped him walk up the stair. The figure, seeming to know the passage by heart, walked ahead of them without faltering.

At the top of the staircase, there was a tapestry. The figure pulled it out of the way, and held it open for them. The priest found himself looking at a tower room, round and luxurious. A thick rug adorned the floor, and bookshelves lined the walls all around. A single desk set near the window, covered with sketches and diagrams.

He turned to look at the figure. They took off the hooded cloak they were wearing, and moved to the side of the room, where they lit a lamp.

In the light, a man in a scholar's robes turned to face them, showing with frazzled auburn hair and glittering green eyes. The recognition hit both Catrina and the priest at the same time, and the scholar smiled at them.

"Who are you?" The priest asked, and a wry smile twitched across the man's face.

"Well, that's a great question, isn't it? That's the question we're all looking for."

Several chairs circled the room, and the scholar gestured to them.

"Sit. You look like you need it."

Catrina lowered the priest into a particularly plush chair, but stayed standing herself.

The scholar glanced between them, eyes glittering.

"Now you two appear to be a prisoner, recently escaped, and a thief here to break him out, yes? I've stolen looks at the dungeon registry, so I know that logically you two are very dangerous accomplices of the Man in the Woods."

Catrina opened her mouth to protest. The scholar held up his hand.

"Here I'm mainly known as Mellan. But to you two? I believe the name your looking for is Izzy, or Tentamon, or Kabuterimon. Do those make sense to you?"

The priest felt an overwhelming sense of vertigo.

The scholar went over the desk, and picked up a diagram. He handed it to Catrina, who stared at it blankly.

"I can't read."

"Oh." He exchanged it for another, a simple drawing this time.

"What is this?" he asked, stabbing his finger at a symbol on the page.

Catrina stared at it.

"Light." She said "It means light."

The scholar snapped his fingers and nodded, and held the page in the priest's face, poking at a different symbol.

"Hope." The priest said, and the scholar nodded again.

He stabbed a finger at the first symbol on the page, a large one, and then jabbed a finger at himself.

"Knowledge." He said. "And I would be a poor representative if I didn't put that to use. I probably don't have many more clues that you two do." He gestured at the papers.

"But I've been writing them all down and piecing them together."

The priest held up a hand to stop him "I'm sorry, he said, but I just got out of a torture chamber. Perhaps you could give me some time to recover before you begin?"

Catrina jolted into action.

"Miss Lily is outside the castle. She and-" Catrina glanced at the scholar "The others are all out there. I'll get her."

The scholar grabbed Catrina's arm.

"The others. How many are there?"

Catrina glared at him and he sighed with frustration.

"I'm one of _you_ remember? I'm not going to turn you in."

She still glared, but spat out: "Three. Lily, and two others."

"That makes six. Bring them up then. It's better if we all talk. Much better."

Catrina paused, but then scampered off into the secret passage without another word.

The scholar and the priest were left together in the room, staring at each other.

"They think I'm mad you know." The scholar said. The priest stared at him uncomprehending.

"The other scholars. And the knights, and the servants. They think I'm raving mad, a loony. I'm not though. You all prove it. You _prove_ it."

He hurried to the desk and started scribbling notes down, frantically. The priest found he didn't have the energy to say much of anything.

When Lily came into the room, she let out a cry and rushed to the priest's side.

"Monsters! She said. Horrible beasts and devils, who would _do_ such a thing!"

She had a large bag with her, and set about applying all sorts of sticky salves to him and forced him to swallow several bad-smelling concoctions. As soon as Hafros lumbered up the passageway, she snapped her fingers and demanded the bandages with the air of a queen.

"So this is seven right?" the priest croaked out "Including the Man in the Woods? That means we have everyone."

The scholar shook his head wildly "Eight. There are eight of us. There were seven, but then miss light over there joined and we had eight."

He jabbed a finger at Catrina and repeated: "Eight."

He paused, and said: "The Man in the Woods is one of us? Prodigious. I didn't know that."

Hafros settled down in the largest chair there, making the poor wooden legs creak.

"Well man then, what _do_ you know about all of this?"

The scholar plopped down in a chair behind the desk and steepled his fingers together, grinning.

 _"Once upon a time,"_ he said _",there were eight chosen heroes."_

"Knew it!" Hafros cut in.

"Yes, well good for you." The scholar said, looking miffed at being interrupted.

"The heroes were defeated a great deal of evil, and did a great deal of good. As heroes tend to do. And as often happens, the evil monsters found they could not defeat them." He smiled "So they decided to change the equation."

He gestured about the room, at all of them "In this world, we have no power, or only a shadow of our power. We have no memories of our purpose. We have no memory of our _enemies._

 _"_ If we had remained as we were, it would be quite easy to pick us off. It is therefore natural to assume that one of our enemies _put_ us this way."

"The Devil Man."

The scholar looked at Catrina, who had a hard light in her eyes.

"'E knew who Mister priest and Aderyn were as soon as he saw 'em. He locked 'em up tight, and wouldn't let anyone see them."

The scholar hemmed "You mean Captain Dunn don't you. The man who was a mercenary."

The priest nodded "He's the Devil."

Hafros looked taken aback, and stared at the priest.

"Surely, you don't mean that like you say it."

"You're the one who said we were Chosen. Is a devil really so strange?"

Hafros huffed hard.

"Well… destiny is one thing. Demons…"

Aderyn cut in "I don't think he's the one."

Catrina looked at her in disbelief "You saw how 'e acted, same as I did! He _knew_ you!"

"But he was as surprised as we were to find us there!"

"Because 'e was looking for the Man in the Woods! Not you!"

The scholar cut in.

"I'll admit it's a possibility Captain Dunn is an enemy. I'll even admit to the possibility that he is a demon. However, I agree with your friend here. It's too early to decide that he is _the_ enemy. Besides, what we need to do first is find the last of us. It seems like it would be poor judgement to start without them."

"A knight."

Everyone turned to look at the priest. He looked back at them, his eyes determined.

"I'm almost sure of it." He said "The eighth will be a knight."


	9. Chapter 9

That night, the priest had nightmares about devils and monsters, coming to rend him flesh from bone. The mercenary stood above them all, with his glinting tools and twisting bits of metal.

 _"You'll never manage it."_ He said. _"I'll kill you, and everyone else._ "

The Man in the Woods was there, looking down at him with terrifying eyes. The priest felt a stabbing accusation boiling up.

 _"You ran away! You left us here and we're all going to die!"_

The beast man looked at him with cold eyes, and bounded away without a word.

The priest was falling, falling. He screamed, and cackling laughter reverberated around him.

Then he woke up.

"That was nothing. Just one of the lab rats. Actually, would you like to see? I've got a lovely rat, and a dissected cat, and a LOT of beetles. Flesh-eating ones, did you know those exist? Wait! I have so much I could show you!"

There was a moment of silence, and then the door to the tower opened and closed. The scholar took a deep huff of breath, and slumped against it.

"Who was that?" the priest asked.

The scholar looked up to him, surprised to find him awake. He shrugged.

"A few guards that heard noises from my tower. Thankfully, it's easy to scare people off when they think you're half crazy."

"Do you really have a dissected cat?"

"No, but I do have an odd variety of beetles. Seems it's been an obsession of mine for a while now."

The room was quiet with sleeping breath, broken occasionally by one of Hafros's snores. There were blankets everywhere, and not a few pillows. The scholar glanced around.

"Say- Orrin, is it? You don't think I'm crazy, do you?"

The priest wasn't quite sure what to respond to that. The scholar sighed, and went to look out the window.

"I can remember everything so _clearly_ sometimes. But it's only for moments. And then it fades, and I'm left trying to figure out what's real and what's not."

He pressed his palm into his forehead, as if trying to hold the memories in.

"I need to rely on _facts_ Orrin, not these fleeting hallucinations. But they're all I have."

He sighed, and shook his head.

"I'm sorry. You needn't bother with me. It's just ramblings. I'll be fine."

The next morning they began to wander the castle, examining all the knights for any hint of familiarity. In the daylight, with the vertigo gone, the priest was much more dubious about his inspiration. However, as the others said, they had nothing else to go on, so they might as well.

"Why exactly did you feel inspired to think of a knight?" the scholar asked him, as they walked the halls.

The priest sighed in exasperation "I don't know. I- I thought of armor. Armor, and a shield with the pattern of the sun on it. Or something similar to a sun."

The scholar nodded excitedly "One of the symbols _does_ look something like a sun!"

"The symbols?"

"The ones I showed you. Knowledge, light, hope, and so forth. One of them looks like a sun."

The priest nodded as if he understood, and continued looking down at the knights training below them. Some kind of military practice, by the look of it, though it could have been dance steps for all he knew about solders.

"You think we should steal something while we're here?" Catrina asked. They were in the armory, watching some of the knights get fitted.

Aderyn stared at the girl, looking horrified, then intrigued, then doubtful.

"It'd be our heads if they caught us."

"Only if they catch us. And I feel like we're on the beheading list already."

Aderyn thought about that.

"Maybe just a couple small things. Stuff we can hide in our pockets."

"Like gold coins?"

 _"Exactly_ like gold coins. Just make sure you don't jingle too much."

"Chosen ones?" Lily asked, and Hafros nodded enthusiastically.

"Yes. For some heroic duty. To smite some evil from the earth."

"Like that devil that Catrina and Father Orrin were talking about."

"Er- maybe. I suppose that could be it yes."

Lily sighed. "I'm afraid this is all going a little over my head. I'm glad to help, I suppose, but I'd prefer a simple problem in front of me to solve. Like an oozing wound. I can solve an oozing wound."

Hafros nodded philosophically.

Lily stopped to look at the jousting track, where several knights were going at practice rounds.

"Recognize someone?" Hafros asked.

"No. I don't think so." She huffed with disappointment "See what I mean? Nothing to work with."

They met up with the other four soon after, and exchanged a summation of no progress at all. The scholar scratched his head and paced back and forth.

"We _must_ be missing something." He said. "Perhaps we're going about this the wrong way. Perhaps we need to look for a knight with some similarity to our's? Father Orrin here thinks he remembers armor, and a shield with the symbol of the sun. Does anyone else remember anything like that?"

"Red hair?" Hafros said, dubiously.

"No it was brown." Aderyn said "And brown eyes."

"I thought it was green eyes." The priest said quietly.

"I think I remember a horned helmet." Catrina piped up quietly.

Lily clapped her hands "Yes! I remember that too! Do you all remember that?"

Several nods rounded the circle.

"Okay so a horned helm." Hafros said "Scholar, do you know of any knights like that?"

The scholar looked at his feet and mumbled something.

"What? Speak up, I can't hear you like that."

The scholar looked up, flushing red "I- don't get out much. I don't know what any of the knights look like."

"Are there any traditional helms?" the priest asked.

The scholar shrugged helplessly "I haven't exactly studied chivalrous history."

Lily sighed and waved in the air as if wafting away a bad smell. "This isn't getting us anywhere."

Without another word, she marched off. The others stared after her.

"Where is she going?"

"I don't know. Is she mad at us?"

They followed Lily dubiously, and found her at the fence of the jousting track, making eyes at one of the knights. He was smiling, and looking as clumsy as the woodcutter's son. Lily gave him an extra-shining beam, and flounced back to the main group.

"The king's guard." She said "They all have horned helmets. He said they're on a hunting trip right now, so we can catch them as they come through the gate."

There was a trumpet call, and the knight on the track shouted after Lily.

"You'd better hurry! That's them now. Maybe you can catch them as they come through the gate!"

The entire gaggle darted, lumbered, and ran towards the front of the castle. They got there just as the portcullis was raised, and the first of the hunting party was coming through. The hounds came in baying first, and then the hound masters behind them, and the falconers after.

"What did you tell him anyway?" Aderyn asked Lily.

Lily tittered "I said that a noble knight had saved me of course, and that I wished to thank him in person. Young men like that are all romance, you know."

Next came some of the nobility, the higher-ranked sort who went on hunts. Several were sweltering in their velvet coats, and looked like they were nothing so glad as to be done. And after that were the knights, king's guard and otherwise.

"They all have their blinkin helmets on!" Catrina hissed "I can't see a thing!"

One or two of the knights took the helms off, but no familiar faces appeared. Catrina sighed loudly with frustration. Then, suddenly, she shouted:

"I see 'im!"

"What?" everyone said, but of Catrina was already off like a shot.

Everyone ran after her, all at varying speeds. The priest found himself lagging behind something awful, his legs starting to go wobbly and his head spinning. He paused to catch hold of a wall to regain his breath, the cuts and pains in his body jabbing into him as if fresh.

 **"You should be more careful."**

The priest whirled around, but saw no one there. Just the crowd of servants and peasantry, arching their necks to get a look at the king's hunting party.

 **"You're a wanted man, you know."**

The priest whirled again, and this time a found a hooded figure, hunched over in the archway. It seemed as though the muzzle of a wolf was under the hood, and he saw a glimpse of feral eyes.

The priest stepped forward, but someone jostled him, and when he looked up the figure was gone. He cast his eyes around the crowd in vain, but saw no sight of the wild man.

Suddenly, a suit of black armor caught his eye, and the priest gave a quick wheeze of suprise. He hunkered over near a building, at the edge of the crowd, and stayed that way while the devil man passed him by.

He stayed there, panting for a long while before he followed the others.


	10. Chapter 10

Catrina had managed to lose everyone else in the rush, and had barely even noticed. She followed the familiar figure, wriggling through gaps and scrambling over walls to keep up. When the figure got down from his horse, nobles and scholars immediately surrounded him, babbling on about this and that. Catrina followed, silent as a shadow, until the figure made a motion with his hand, and the crowd dispersed. He went into a guarded, nodding to two soldiers who stood at the entrance and saluted him. Catrina went over the wall to follow, bypassing the guards entirely.

She heard the man sigh and laugh as they left the crowd behind, and followed him, creeping behind the rose bushes. The odd tickle of familiarity nagged at her skull as she tried to think of what to do. Finally, she took a deep breath, and stepped out from behind the bush to greet him.

The man stopped in his tracks, and stared at her.

"What are you doing here?" he asked.

Catrina didn't respond.

The man frowned, and a pair of fingers tapped on his sword. Then he seemed to make up his mind, and walked past her, making a wide arc.

"You should get out of here. It's my private garden. No one else is allowed here unless I invite them."

Catrina stood frozen as the man passed, because for the first time she had got a good look at him.

He had red hair, red as flame and spiked in smooth tufts around his head, and green eyes. He was tall, and broad, and had a very commanding hair around him. And he was wearing a crown.

When she met back up with the others, Catrina was in tears. She found Lily and Hafros first, but refused to explain until they had returned to the scholar's rooms. They found the others, went back to the tower. Then, Catrina calmly explained them that there was no way they could talk to the last of them.

"But why _not?"_ the priest protested, all disbelief.

"Because e's the bloody _king!"_ Catrina shouted back at him. "We _can't_ take 'im!"

She rounded on the scholar "You said we're from a'nother world. And we've been tryin' to get back. But we can't take the _King_ back!"

Aderyn was the first to pick it up "The entire kingdom would go to bits."

The scholar protested "Come now! Even if he has do brothers or sons, there are plenty of cousins in line for the throne!"

Hafros grumbled worriedly "Those transitions can get rocky though. And he is a good king, you have to admit. Even us sailors know that. Doesn't seem like we'd be doing something good, taking him away."

The priest broke in "But it's what we _need_ to do! It's a command from God!"

The room broke into arguing.

Finally, the scholar shut everyone up by shouting at the top of his lungs.

"Shut up shut up shut up shut UP!"

"Is everything all right?" a voice asked from outside the door.

The scholar stalked over and stuck his head out.

"If you don't leave me alone," he said "I'll dissect you and replace your head with that of a _newt."_

He slammed the door in the hapless bystander's face, and stalked back to the group.

"All right." He said, in a much lower tone. "The first thing we need to do is make sure that it wasn't a mistake."

Catrina protested "I _know_ what I saw _!"_

"I know. But maybe he's a visiting prince or something. We need to make sure."

"How to we do that?" Lily asked.

"We go to court." The scholar explained. "I haven't been in ages, but I'm allowed to go. And we don't even need to go inside the throne room. Just get a solid look at him from the balcony, or such."

Everyone thought about this, and slowly they agreed. Aderyn and the priest both put on cloaks and hoods, just in case, and the priest in particular bandaged up his face to further hide his features. The court was held as usual that evening, and they all crept like a particularly motley group of shadows to what the scholar assured them was the _best_ peephole on the court functions. He knew all of the passages, he proudly boasted, and this was definitely best.

The king was on his throne, surrounded by advisors and nobility. He chattered with them easily, waving his hand occasionally in dismissal or approval. Musicians played in the wings, and a court fool cavorted about in front of the throne, making a general fool out of himself.

They all exchanged glances among themselves.

"Well?" Catrina asked "That's him. Do you all recognize him too?"

They all nodded, and Catrina felt queasy.

"What are we going to do?" she asked.

No one seemed to have an answer. They made their way back through the service passage, in poor spirits. They were so wrapped up in their own thoughts that they didn't even notice the court fool until they ran right into them.

Lily was the one that actually made contact, and the spindly man went tumbling over backwards something awful, though he did manage to land on his feet. Lily squeaked in surprise, and started blathering apologies, as the priest helped the man up.

However, when the jester was standing, the priest found he couldn't extract his hands. The fool's white glove gripped his hand like a vice. Yellow eyes stared into his, and the clown's mouth, painted red as a wound, opened in an uncanny smile.

"So you've all made it."

The priest extracted his hand with a hard _yank_ , and went tumbling into the rest of his companions. The fool laughed.

"I must admit, I didn't expect you all to get here _this_ quickly. It's only been- what, three months?"

"What are you talking about?" Hafros asked, trying to sound gruff.

The jester laughed again "Oh of _course_. You probably can't recognize me right now. Still all muddled with the extra memories you have now. Let me give you a little hand."

He snapped his fingers, and it was as if the motley man had taken off a mask. Very suddenly it was a monster standing in front of them: a monster in the guise of a laughing jester. The priest blanched and backed up, muttering prayers and crossing himself. Hafros clutched at his pendant, Catrina went backwards hissing loudly. The jester laughed.

"I must admit, you've all done a very good job to gather up like this. But you do realize that you're stuck here now, don't you?"

The scholar shook his head, trying to seem defiant "There are people who will take the king's place, if he disappears. The kingdom will be fine even if we all leave."

The fool raised an eyebrow and cackled in delight "Do you really think _that's_ what's stopping you?" he clapped his hands "Well, why don't you come to court proper tomorrow? You can say hello to the king, and tell him all about your little quest, and then you'll all live happily ever after, right?"

He cackled again, and then he was gone.

"I didn't just imagine that did I?" the scholar asked. He was fidgeting, and his fingers were twitching. "You all saw it too right? The evil clown?"

Aderyn put her hands on his shoulders, patting him protectively.

"It's fine. We saw it too. Some kind of monster I guess, just like you said: he sent us here."

The scholar nodded hastily. "Yes. Yes that was definitely him."

He cast his eyes about the group "If the devil man isn't the one who sent us here, do you think maybe there are other enemies in this world? They say there's a duke on the other side of the kingdom who drinks blood. I wonder if he's one."

"What do we do?" Hafros asked.

"That's the question, isn't it?" the scholar said, laughing.


	11. Chapter 11

No was in a good mood as they walked back, and no one was in a good mood as they discussed what had happened. Aderyn and Lily snapped at each other early on, and it was only the priest's timely intervention that kept it from getting ugly. The scholar seemed to be withdrawing into his diagrams, and kept sketching wildly across pages upon pages, muttering to himself.

Hafros finally spoke up, drowning them all out with his sonorous tone.

"The way I see it," he said "Leaving that- twisted _thing_ in the court is far worse than removing the king."

He cast his eyes around, and found everyone slowly nodding in agreement.

"Maybe we decide to stay." He said "Maybe not. I don't even know how much of a choice we'll have. But we need to make sure the king knows what he's dealing with there."

Aderyn sighed, and stretched.

"I'm going to go check that my bow is in order. I'm not going in there unarmed." She glanced around "You all should get some sort of weapons too."

Lily shook her head "I'll get my supplies set up anyway. Someone's bound to get hurt, sooner or later."

Soon, the priest found himself wandering the halls with Catrina and Hafros, who had decided to pilfer the armory. He still wasn't sure if he wanted to carry a weapon, truth be told, but he couldn't shake the feeling that he needed one. He hung outside in the court keeping watch while the other two went inside to pick things out. The bandages on his face itched, and he scratched at them. Then he turned, and found the Man in the Woods staring him in the face.

 **"You're lucky I'm not a guard."** The man said **"Or you'd all be dead."**

The priest went scrambling backwards, choking down a yelp. He took several deep breaths.

 **"What are you all doing here?"**

"We're getting weapons. We're going to the court tomorrow." He paused "You should come with us. We can explain everything, and we need you. We really do."

The man shook his head.

 **"The court wants me hung up by my throat, or with a sword through the gut. I'd be an idiot to go to court."**

"But you're one of us!" the priest protested.

The beast man looked guilty, but shook his head.

 **"I'll come if you need me. Until then, I'm staying out of it."**

"Mister priest!"

The priest turned to find Catrina dashing towards him, her belt arrayed with more daggers than he had ever seen. She spun, as if it was a new skirt.

"What do you think?"

"I just hope you don't have to use them." The priest said.

Hafros came ducking under the doorway, a smith's hammer in his grip. He grinned, and handed the priest a spear.

"Seemed appropriate." He said "Don't ask me why."

The priest hefted it nervously, and tried to imagine stabbing someone with it. He couldn't. As the other two played with their new weapons, the priest turned to look for the Man in the Woods. He was hardly even surprised to find that he had disappeared.

The court was crowded as could be that evening. They all filed in, dressed in various servants outfits to fit in. Servants were plentiful in such places, the scholar explained to them, and would hardly seem out of place.

Most of them hid weapons under their clothes. Aderyn wore a cloak to hide her bow. Catrina wore a tunic over the knives. The priest gladly found that there was no way to hide a spear, and made his excuses to stay unarmed. Even Lily brought a small knife though, and the thought made him nervous.

They filed into the room and stayed at the edges. The scholar was fidgeting the worst, and looked like he might be sick when they finally called him to the throne. The jester was crouching by the king's side, smiling a wan mischievous smile that doubtless seemed harmless to most everyone there.

"Your royal Majesty." The scholar bowed low, his fingers fidgeting nervously behind his back. "I and my compatriots have a… query for you."

The king smiled graciously, and gave an imperial nod.

"State your query then."

The scholar was clearly nervous beyond belief. He stumbled for words. Catrina stepped forward.

"You recognize me?" she asked.

A small furrow came between the King's eyes.

"You were in the garden."

"Yeah sire, I was. But even there, ya' knew me didn't ya?"

Catrina stepped to the side, and gestured to the others, still hugging the wall.

"And them. You recognize 'em? And the scholar. You recognized 'im too, right."

The confusion on the King's face grew deeper. There was murmuring in the hall now, as everyone wondered what in the world the purpose of this query was. The King turned back to the scholar.

"What is the meaning of this? I fail to understand."

The scholar bobbed humbly again, trying to keep up the smile.

"We know little more than you your majesty. Only that each and every one of us could recognize each other on sight, and that we all seem to have visions we can't explain. Does this sound familiar to you?"

The king opened his mouth to speak, when a high thin laugh cut through the air. It was the jester, tittering away. Slowly, the nobles began to laugh as well, then the servants, then the whole room was chortling at the joke. The king snorted himself, and shook his head.

"Visions, you say? You're the mad Mellan aren't you? I may have seen you around the castle yes. But this motley of servants is hardly familiar to me."

"You _must_ recognize us!" the priest said, desperation cracking through "Don't you remember? Tell me you remember!"

For a moment, the priest thought he saw something flash in the king's eyes. Then the court jester leaned down to the king and placed a possessive hand on his shoulder.

 _"Sire,"_ he murmured, the words carrying across the room "It's simply a trick. Nothing more."

As in a daze, the king nodded, and gestured to the guards.

"Arrest them. Put them in the dungeon."

The priest felt something sink in his chest, and the guards advanced. Then Catrina drew a dagger stabbed a knight in the chest, and chaos burst throughout the room like a ripe tomato. The guards came charging at them, and people were screaming. Hafros was swinging with the hammer, ringing on helms like gongs, Catrina bit and dodged, Aderyn clawed and struck at faces until they bled.

The scholar stayed standing in the middle of the room, voicing protests as loudly as he could, but the king's ears were as stoppered as if they had been wadded up in cotton. The jester at his side laughed. He began to chant, singing in the king's ear like a nursery rhyme.

 _"We've played the game, we've had our fun,_

 _"Be careful children, what you say,_

 _"The curtain closes, the game is done._

 _"Now the Pied Piper leads you away."_

He took a deep bow behind the king's back, and began to cackle, louder and louder.

 _No._ the priest thought _I won't let it end like this._ But he had no idea what to do.

Then, all at once, there was the sound of shattering glass. A thing burst into the room. It seemed to be beast, then man, then something completely different. When everyone's gaze settled, a terrifying figure stood in front of them.

Everyone, even the jester, was shocked into silence

 _"The Man in the Woods"_ the court began to whisper " _the Man in the Woods."_

The fierce figure snarled, and shifted as if uncomfortable in the civilized lights. He glanced back at the six, then at the king.

 **"I don't know exactly what's going on."** He said **"But you're being a right fool."**

The King bristled, and stood, drawing his sword.

"Monster." He said. "You've been plaguing my people for years, and now you choose to come into my own castle? _One_ of us is a fool, that's for sure."

No more breath was wasted on words. The beast man leapt for the king's throat, teeth bared, and the king's sword swung. The beast man dodged, slashed at the King, and struck him several steps back. The sword came down, and bounced off something metal under the wolf's hide. The beast man snarled and slashed at the king again, this time raking his cheek and drawing blood. Everyone was screaming, and the scholar was clutching his head in terror.

"This is all wrong!" he said "This is all wrong, you need to stop fighting!"

The soldiers rushed forward, spears aimed at the beat man, but suddenly Hafros was in front of them, swinging left and right, like a living wall rebuffing their advances. Lily started screaming like a banshee, yelling about how the Man in the Woods would kill them all and rend them into several (graphically described) pieces. In moments the servant, and then the nobles, were doing their best to flee from the hall in abject panic, and the soldiers found themselves struggling upstream in a river of silks and perfume.

Catrina, pressed in a corner of this crowd, found Aderyn hauling her to her feet.

"You've got to get out of here Catrina. Before this get any worse."

Catrina cried out in protest, but Aderyn was already hauling her towards the door. Then, suddenly, the priest burst from the crowd, and grabbed ahold of both their arms. It was a weak grip, but the surprise stopped them.

"No. He said. No, you need to stay."

Aderyn rounded on him "Look, I appreciate your guff. I really do. But there's a time to cut and run."

The priest shook his head.

"We need to stop them right? Before they kill each other. And we need to shock the king out of whatever hold that sorcerer fool has on him."

"What do you have in mind?" Catrina asked.

The priest looked at Aderyn "Give Catrina your bow."

"What?!" Aderyn said, clutching at her weapon.

"I've never used one before!" Catrina protested.

The priest was feeling vertigo so strong that he was almost falling over.

"You have. Remember? And you've shot the king, or whoever he is, before. He'll remember too. So it needs to be you."

Catrina blanched "What if I kill him?"

"You'll have to make sure you don't."

Aderyn pressed the bow into Catrina's hand. "Do it. Before we all become sane."

Catrina took the bow with shaking hands. Then, like a crashing wave, Captain Dunn burst from the crowd, swinging his sword like a madmad.

"You're not ruining this!" he shouted "I'm not going back to being dead!"

Catrina screamed, but suddenly the priest was there, with a spear in hand. He struck the captain's sword aside, and drove him back, one step, then another.

"Do it!" he shouted "You need to do it now!"

The mercenary swung forward again, bellowing, but the priest somehow rebuffed the attack again, and again.

Catrina fit an arrow to the bow, and tried to aim it through the crowd.

"I can't see!"

Aderyn cast her eyes around, and caught sight of the window alcoves "Up there!"

She made a step with her hands "I'll boost you."

Catrina giggled, clearly terrified.

"Before we become sane."

She put her foot in the makeshift stirrup, and Aderyn hoisted her into the air. It was like she was flying. Catrina caught hold of the ledge with her hands like claws, and below Aderyn shoved her upwards until she was able to clamor into the alcove by hook and crook.

Panting, the girl stood up and fitted the bow to the arrow. Her heart was pounding, and the entire world was mad. The jester was laughing again, and everyone was screaming.

Catrina took a deep breath. She pulled the arrow back on the string. And she fired.

The arrow whizzed through the air, above everyone's heads and landed with a solid _thunk_. The king stumbled back, his hand going to his bleeding shoulder. The king looked up, and saw the girl on the ledge. A glint of recognition came to his eyes.

 **"You remember, don't you?"**

The king looked at the Man in the Woods. The beast man seemed to be waiting to see what he would do.

 **"We were side by side. We were fighting. They pierced our hearts, with a spear, with an arrow. It made us strong. Do you remember?"**

The king looked around him, confused. He saw the wild man, the scholar, the fisherman, the herb woman, the priest, the scrubby little foundling on the ledge. He turned to the beast man.

"You left." He said. "You left us, and we can't beat him without you."

 **"We need to get back, before we can't worry about that, now don't we?"**

The king glanced around again, then, with one swooping motion he turned and drove his sword through the jester's heart.

The jester looked down at the bleeding wound, and smiled a wan smile.

"Well. It was a fun game anyway. I suppose I'll see you at the tip of the mountain then."

With a laugh, he dissolved into nothingness, and everything went white.


	12. Epilogue

The eight men and women stood in the room, staring at each other. The crowd had fled in the madness, and the soldiers had all been swept away with it, or beaten into submission. A few unconscious knights lay on the floor.

The king sank into his throne. "Close the door."

Hafros and Aderyn rushed to the great double doors, heaving them shut. Lily was already checking the soldiers for more serious wounds, making sure they didn't have anything lasting. She came across the priest, kneeling next to the dead body of the mercenary captain.

"I killed him." The priest said "I've never killed anyone before."

Lily didn't know what to do to help him. Then Catrina was there, and she had dropped the bow and arrow, and was hugging the priest tight. He hugged her back, shaking in her grip.

The king stared at all of this, and then at the scholar and beast man in front of him.

"It feels like something is gone." The king said.

The Man in the Woods nodded. He paused, and then took off the hide of the wolf. It thumped to the floor, lifeless.

The scholar seemed to be at a loss, for once. Which was unfortunate, because the king turned to him for answers.

"What is gone?" he asked "What just happened?"

The scholar opened his mouth, then closed it and thought.

"Once there were eight heroes." He explained. "Who fought mighty battles. And they were trapped in another world by one of their enemies: a twisted jester."

The scholar glanced where the court fool had stood, and where he disappeared. The scholar shook his head.

"It seems that those eight were attached to us. To imprison them."

The king looked at his sword. There was no blood on it. It was as clean as could be.

"Then… we _aren't_ the heroes."

"We were. But- they seem to have gone back to their own adventure."

The king looked at the ceiling, and he sighed.

"Now what?"

"That's the question, isn't it?"

No one entirely understood what had happened, in the aftermath. There was rumor of a sorcerer who had disguised himself as the king's fool, and taken over the court. There were rumors that angels had struck down a devil in the throne room.

What could be said was that the court gained a new knight. A man with striped scars, and a bit of a feral look in his eyes. They called him Sir Conri, the wolf. He became one of the kingdom's greatest heroes.

It could be said that the Scholar was promoted to the high ranks or the royal academy, and immediately went to work researching unexplainable forces, and unconscious bonds. He was considered a little nutty by some, but the more mundane research he turned out was of undoubtable quality.

The castle got a new healer in the royal infirmary, a new captain in the navy, and a new royal hunter, who seemed to be picking up falconry very quickly.

As for the girl names Catrina and the priest named Orrin: they headed back to his village on a simple cart. The king had offered to bring them both to court, to make them rich and send special requests to the highest priests to make Orrin a Saint. But they had both declined, and said goodbye to Lily, as well as the others, with bittersweet smiled.

The king sent them with plenty of reward, of course. He wouldn't brook protest on that account. The priest thought he might fix up the church a little, and perhaps give some to the town to improve the well or something.

"Father Orrin?"

He looked over at Catrina, who was staring at her hands.

"Father Orrin, when we get back, would it be okay if I attend a church service?"

He nodded. "Why the change of heart?"

Catrina looked up, at the sky.

"I was an angel Father Orrin. It only happened for a moment, but I felt it inside me. Like a bright light." She looked at him, "I can't burn up in the church if I felt something like that, can I?"

Orrin smiled, and shook his head.

"I think you'll be just fine."


End file.
